In India

My daughter sent this to me. She and Hannah met in Australia prior to Hannah going to India.

In India
By Hannah Blackford, Florida

I am currently sitting in an Internet Cafe in Calcutta India. Across the street is the Mother Thersa House. We worked there this afternoon, by playing with orphans. Outside. Outside it is just like the movies you see of India. Dirty. Beggers sitting on the side of the road, people destitute everywhere. There are also bodies lying covered with cloths everythere. Some are sleeping, some are dead. Sometimes we have to walk over them, as the alive ones cry to us for food, and the others just lie there.

It is easy to ask where is God in all of this. But I know the anwser to that question. He is in me. Yesterday I spent some time with God and asked him what he wanted to do that day. On the taxi ride to the Mother Thersa Home he anwsered me so clearly. He told me to smile. I cant feed everyone, or touch everyone, or help everyone, but I can smile. And that was about the only thing I could do to help. Just smile at people and bring them the love of God.

I have heard that what a city looks like is a reflection of its spiritual side. What kind of religion is here to bring such destitution? Islam teaches that Allah wills people to be poor. I do not blieve in a God who would will this on any of his children. Today we say a woman with only a piece of cloth wrapped around her waist. She was standing in the middle of the street, yelling, her breasts were just flaps of skin. She was skin and bones. God, you are needed here. Sometimes the only thing I can do is pray, and not let it overwhelm me.

Right now I am listening to the Muslim call to prayer being played over loudspeakers. There is a mosque near here, about a block away. My heart is breaking, but I cannot let it break. Is this what God feels about his people? If my heart breaks, how much more does his heart break? I feel that if I let my heart break, it will overwhelm me. God, give me the strenth to look the mothers in the eye who are beging for me to give them something, as they motion to thier baby who is skin and bones. Give me the strength to give them a smile. Give me discernment when you would have me give something, or just your love.

The problem is, if you give one person something, a mob imediately gathers. You hand out all you have, and you havent accomplished anything. They will just be hungry tomorrow. You have to change the society with the love of God. Only then will poverty begin to cease. The void will always be there, you can never fill it unless you begin to close it.

I realize that this has been a long and somewhat heavy blog. But don't just shut it out of your hearts and minds.